One in five schools recently scrutinised by the Education Review Office needs external support or intervention.
By John Gerritsen of RNZ
Twenty-one of the 100 most recently-published reviews of state or integrated schools said they needed or should continue to have statutory managers, a commissioner, or guidance for improving things like attendance and student achievement.
The recommendations were made in review reports signed off between early January and mid-November.
Last year ERO called for firmer action on schools that failed to improve despite support and some school principals warned the office was not giving schools enough credit for the challenges they faced due to social issues in their communities.
One principal spoken to by RNZ said reviewers who visited their school told them the school was doing excellent work, but "moderation" of their report resulted in only some mention of the school's positive work and a recommendation that the school needed help.
The principal warned that ERO's approach would discourage competent principals from taking on challenging schools in poor communities.
They also said schools with moderate results would get away with cruising or even declining results so long as their achievement and attendance figures were not in the danger zone.
ERO was unable to tell RNZ if it was making more recommendations for support or intervention than in the past.
"The Ministry of Education is the agency responsible for delivering support and is best placed to provide you with information on how many schools receive support," it said.
However, it said it was "building a tracker" to indicate what types of support or intervention it recommended most.
Asked what common problems reviewers saw across schools, ERO said: "There are a range of common issues and can include us identifying schools that have low regular student attendance, a large proportion of students who are regularly and chronically absent, low student achievement and a lack of progress, and a significant number of students leaving school without NCEA qualifications," it said.
Among the 21 review reports recommending support or intervention, 17 called for new action and five recommended continuing existing measures.
Eleven of the 21 schools had high equity index numbers placing them in the 14% of schools facing the most socio-economic barriers to achievement.
Eight were in the next most challenged group of schools, described as facing "many" barriers to achievement.
Just one of the schools was classed as facing "average" socio-economic barriers to achievement.
The office recommended dissolution of Herekino School's board and appointment of a commissioner in order to improve leadership and student attendance and achievement at the Northland school.
It recommended appointment of a limited statutory manager at Te Kura a Iwi o Pawarenga to manage the relationship between the board and tumuaki and support strategic planning and teaching.
It also recommended a limited statutory manager for Randwick School in Lower Hutt to improve leadership, action planning and assessment and attendance.
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